


A Hidden Fire

by fluffernutter8



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Gen, Season/Series 02, Wallace POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 14:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3981703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffernutter8/pseuds/fluffernutter8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wallace before, during, and after Chicago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Hidden Fire

_i._

Chicago is different from Neptune. He can almost hear Veronica's sarcastic incredulity at this revelation, but it's all he can think in those first few days. It's different from Cleveland too. He doesn't have the guys he’s known since he was a kid, but he hasn't pissed off any biker gangs either. Chicago doesn’t feel comfortable like Cleveland, or as if he is sliding into a grave, wondering if he is going to scrape a hand against one of Neptune’s skeletons. He floats invisibly through the hallways and streets for a few days, and it doesn’t feel bad. It fills something strange and hopeful in him.

On his fourth day of school, three players on the basketball team are found with drugs in their lockers. The following Monday, they hold tryouts to replace them. By Wednesday, Wallace is sitting at the jock table. Nathan pounds him on the back when he gets home with the news, and tells him they can order in for dinner, whatever he wants. (Wallace doesn’t mention that when they’ve had takeout every night since they got to the city, it’s not that much a treat.)

He almost wants to call his mother to tell her that everything is working out. He almost wants to answer one of Veronica’s calls or emails to tell her how simple everything is here. But it’s easier to crouch over his wavering anger when he doesn’t speak to them, so he decides to take Rashard up on his offer of a party instead.

_ii._

Wallace’s first memory is of his dad bending down and telling him to be good. It has the hazy, washed out feel of a movie watched from a distance, but his dad’s big eyes and sure voice, come easily to Wallace’s mind. “Be good, Wallace. Your mom and I only want to hear good things when we come home.”

He’d said the same thing through the years, a playful admonishment before Wallace’s first date, an eye contact warning when he and Darrell were getting wild and his mom was holding a hand to her forehead. It was one of the last things he had told Wallace, too.

“You listen to your mom and take care of your brother, son. And don’t forget to be good.”

Now as he sits with his head pressed against the car window, letting the dark Chicago streets blur by, he realizes that it wasn’t just about behaving in school or helping around the house.

“Be good, Wallace,” but his chest is racing and he doesn’t know that he remembers how.

_iii._  

He hugs Mom and Darrell when he gets back to Neptune, holding his mother as she says over and over how glad she is to have him home. Darrell has fallen back to sleep on the couch, Rocking New Year’s Eve aside, by the time she has finished.

She holds Wallace’s face in her hands. “Are you sure you’re alright?” she asks, and he tries not to break eye contact too obviously as he steps away and says that he wants to take a few minutes to see Veronica.

Neptune feels more comfortable as he drives, and he has to shake himself as he thinks that maybe it’s not the familiarity of home, but that he is one of the skeletons now.

He has to sit in the car for a few minutes before he can walk up the stairs to Veronica’s apartment. He wonders if Rashard ever sits behind the wheel back in Chicago and watches his hands tremble as he thinks of darkness.

He pulls on a smile as he mounts the stairs, and it almost becomes genuine as he sees Veronica’s face. But as she reaches to hug him, so truly glad to see him, he imagines what New Year’s would be like for that man’s family. As Veronica pulls him and his mask inside, he wonders if this is how she feels all the time.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for VM fic recs May prompts. Title from Shakespeare: “Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”


End file.
